Alarming Migration

Internal and external migration have been strong trends in Nepal in recent decades. Rapid urbanisation has become a necessary tool for development and modernisation. Growing cities have pulled people from villages, where the opportunities for quality education and employment have been few and far between. The concentration of facilities constitutes a crucial factor behind internal and out-migration. People from villages prefer to live in cities and those residing in the urban centres go abroad for study or settle there permanently. The villages have been emptied as youths have left for work in cities and foreign destinations. Farmlands remain fallow; houses are left in ruins. Only the old and physically challenged are in the custody of rural society. This is the story of many villages across Nepal.

A news report published in this daily the other day depicts a similar picture of villages of Baitadi, a remote hill district in the far-west region. Villages such as Dehimandau, Shahilek and Dewalhat are now wearing a deserted look as the people migrated to Tarai for better prospects of education and employment. These villages have been connected to the roads and national highways but the people's needs have not been met by the road infrastructure alone. The national pride projects, including the Mid-Hill Highway and Mahakali Corridor, have made Baitadi accessible for people from far and wide. All 84 wards of the district have been linked with motorable roads. But fewer vehicles are plying owing to the shortage of passengers. Baitadi district's population fell from 250,898 in 2011 to around 242,000 in the 2021 census. Nearly 10,000 people left Dasharathchand Municipality in the past decade.